Mounting ISO files in Linux

One of the niceties of linux distros like Ubuntu is that you can ‘mount’ ISO files. An ISO file, or ISO image, is an archive of a CD or DVD. By mounting an ISO file, you can read the data as though you inserted the CD into your computer. Ubuntu will even regard it as a CD (or DVD) so that games, video players, etc. think that they are reading from an actual CD (or DVD).

To mount the ISO, you first need a directory to mount to. Create this directory anywhere on your file system. ie:

sudo mkdir /media/iso

Once that’s done, we mount the ISO:

sudo mount -o loop [/path/to/iso/image/file] /media/iso

And voila, your ISO image is mounted. Your programs should now see a new CD/DVD device for you to use.

When you’re done with the iso, you can unmount it by typing:

sudo umount /media/iso

Note that you can mount as many ISO files at a time as you like – useful if you’re playing a game which requires multiple CDs.

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